We had to report to the hospital at 6:00am, Friday April 23, 2010.  He was given a sedative just before he was taken into the operating room around 7:20am. That was when the waiting game began. I got my first update around 11:30am; I was informed that they had a difficult time putting I.V.’s in because he was hard finding his veins (which I knew; because he has such small veins). Needless to say that they did get lines in him and that he didn’t feel a thing. I was also told that he had just gone on the heart-lung bypass machine and they were draining his heart so that they can begin to work on it. I was told that I would get another update around 2:30pm/3:00pm.

When I got my update at approximately 3:00pm, I was told that the surgery was a success and that his surgeon, Dr. Backer will be out to talk to me. The physiologist was the first to come out and give me her update. She said that there were no problems during the arrhythmia surgery (also called a Maze). They went in and froze the arteries that were causing the arrhythmias. They also took out his old pacemaker and replaced it with a dual-chamber pacemaker. The old pacemaker that he had only had one lead, the new one has two leads. She also told me that I will be getting his old pacemaker and that his surgeon will give it to me once he comes out to give me his update.

When Dr. Backer, the surgeon, came out to give me his update he gave me the old pacemaker and a piece of the material used in redirecting his blood flow.  Wow, what souvenirs Qadar will have when he gets older!

I was able to go and finally see him about 4:15pm and of course he was sedated and resting comfortably. He had a breathing tube in, of which, they were going to take out tomorrow (Saturday).

On day two: Saturday, April 24, 2010: He was in and out of sleep, waking up with occasionally bouts of fussiness because he wanted the breathing tube out. After a couple of hours of weaning him off the ventilator he was finally given his wish – the breathing tube came out. As he’s becoming more and more alert he fusses, not because of pain; but, because he wants to drink – at this point anything. He can’t drink right now because they want the swelling to go down in his throat before that give him any liquids. To moisten his palette; I’ve been allowed to give him dab of water on a swab. He wants to overdo it with the dabs, of course, but we can’t give him too much. Hopefully, in another couple of hours he will be allowed to have a cup. If anything else comes up to report on day two I will post; otherwise, I will post tomorrow for day three.

I will upload photos soon.

It was discovered that the stitching came away from the shunt that they used, as part of the Norwood Procedure, to re-direct the blood flow. We were admitted immediately, do not pass go, go directly to Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) and scheduled to be the first case the next morning, October 12^th. During our stay, his oxygen levels remained at 52%. It was discovered that if I held him exactly in an upright position, literally, his oxygen levels rose to 70%. So for the rest of the evening, overnight, and following morning, until the nurse was ready to take in into surgery, my baby remained in my arms in an upright position.

He ended up on the heart-lung machine longer than anticipated; so, his kidneys took a hit. He lost kidney function for approximately 2-weeks. The doctors couldn’t tell me if his kidneys would come back, because they said that his case has never happened before; so it was a waiting game for all of us. After a couple of days, wait he ended up going on Peritoneal Dialysis until his kidneys back two weeks later.

We ended up staying in the hospital just over a month having been discharged November 18, 2006.

Since that last discharge on 12/25/07, thank God, we have not had any hospitalizations. He has to undergo one more surgery, the Fontan.